PROSCRIPTION OF THE HIGHLAND GARB. This picturesque and primitive costume may now be said to have become fashionable ever since it was worn by one of our late monarchs; it is, however, seldom worn in the Highlands, except on grand gala days. It is curious to glance back to the time when this dress and everything connected with it was interdicted by act of parliament, under severe pains and penalties. As the act is but little known, even by many who now assume the garb, I will quote it as a curiosity. An act (20 Geo. II. c. 39) was passed for the more effectually disarming the Highlanders in Scotland, and for the more effectually securing the peace of the Highlands, and for restraining the use of the Highland dress,' &c. With reference to the latter, it was enacted, that from and after the 1st day of August 1747, any person, whether man or boy, within Scotland (excepting officers and soldiers in his majesty's service), who should, on any pretence whatsoever, wear or put on the clothes commonly called the Highland clothes, namely, the plaid, philibeg, trews, shoulder-belts, or any part of the Highland garb, or should use for greatcoats or upper coats, tartans, or party-coloured plaid, or stuff, should be imprisoned without bail for six months, and on being convicted for a second offence, should be liable to be transported to any of his majesty's plantations abroad for seven years.' The term for discontinuing the dress was extended by a subsequent act to the 1st of August in the following year. This obnoxious act, unworthy of a free government, was repealed in 1782. The many little devices the Highlanders adopted to retain the Garb of Old Gaul' are calculated to excite a smile in those of the present day. Instead of the prohibited tartan kilt, some wore pieces of a blue, green, or red thin cloth, or camlet, wrapped round the waist, and hanging down to the knees like the fealdag. The tight breeches were particularly obnoxious. These, when on journeys, they often suspended over their shoulders upon sticks; others, either more wary or less submissive, sewed up the centre of the kilt with a few stitches between the thighs, which gave it something of the form of the trousers worn by Dutch skippers. At first these evasions of the act were visited with great severity; but at length the officers of the law seem to have acquiesced in the construction put by the Highlanders upon the prohibition in the act. This appears from the trial of a man named M'Alpin, from Breadalbane, who was acquitted on his proving that the kilt had been stitched up in the middle. Such were the amusing evasions of this extremely absurd act. WASHING IN THE MAURITIUS. The stony bed of the river (Grand Riviere) above the bridge presented a cheerful sight. Here nearly all the clothes worn in Port Louis are washed. For about a quarter of a mile the river varies from one hundred to three hundred yards in width. This space was covered with clothes spread out in the sun, and with men and women of swarthy or ebon skins standing in the water washing. They soak the clothes, rub them with soap or goats' dung, beat them upon flat portions of the rock with a flat piece of wood having a short handle, work them backward and forward in the water, expose them to the sun, and occasionally throw water over them when spread out. By these means they make them very white, but destroy them so fast, that our clothes were nearly as much worn during a stay of about three months in the Mauritius, as during one of six years in the Australian colonies.-Backhouse's Mauritius. LILLIPUTIAN VOLUMES. Sir John Tobin purchased for the sum of one hundred and five pounds a small missal, called The Hours of Mary of Burgundy. The volume is very little more than four inches in height, by three or four only in width, yet it is full of rich and striking specimens of the graphic and ornamental art of the time. The Novum Testamentum Græcum, published in 1628, at Sedan, in France, is the smallest Greek Testament ever printed; this exceedingly beautiful volume measuring only three inches and a quarter in length, and one inch seven-eighths in breadth. Copies of it have sold for prices varying from one guinea to five. Dr Dibdin, in his Literary Reminiscences (vol. ii. p. 943), says he possesses an Agnus Dei, which seems to have been printed for, as well as dedicated to, Prince Henry, elder son of James I. It measures only one inch and three-eighths in height, an inch in width, and half an inch in thickness. Its author is John Weever; and it consists of an abridged life of our Saviour in English metre, having only a couplet on each page, printed prose-wise. The title CHEAP PUBLICATIONS IN NAPLES. The literature of the whole of Italy has long been strangled by political disunion. Each of the various governments under which it has from time to time existed, has deemed it necessary to exercise a rigid censorship over the press, lest the dissemination of public opinion should unsettle existing institutions. The kingdom of Naples is not exempt from this system; and to it is added a very high duty on foreign books, so that the people are denied that information from abroad which they are unable to obtain at home. So strict is the supervision of foreign works, that a correspondent to the Athenæum declares that a Neapolitan bookseller told him that even such innocuous books as the Vicar of Wakefield,' and Madame Cottin's exquisite tale of Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia,' are prohibited. It is, however, not a little extraordinary, that, despite these stringent regulations, periodical literature flourishes in Naples. In 1834 there were thirty publications issued in the whole kingdom, and at the present twenty-eight come out in the capital alone -we cannot add regularly,' for their appearance is freThe editors quently suspended by the capricious censors. are occasionally afraid to issue them through the booksellers, and cause them to be deposited with their subscribers with as much fear and trembling as if they were contraband goods. From the source above quoted, we derive the following particulars concerning the periodical press of Naples. The intervals of publication vary from two months to a week; and it is worthy of remark, that the government is liberal enough to allow them to pass free through the post. The most expensive is 'Il Progresso,' which contains 150 pages, and sells for five carlini, about four shillings and fourpence). The Poliorama Pittoresca' is published weekly at the price of five grani, or twopence-farthing, and undertakes 'to diffuse useful knowledge amongst all classes, and to render reading in families agrecable.' It has much merit, and has been in existence during eight years. Il Diritto' is chiefly devoted to jurisprudence, has lived two years, and sells at thirty grani, or one shilling and three-halfpence. The title of La Scienza e la Fede (science and religion) sufficiently indicates its main purpose, which is to show how science and religion that is, the Roman Catholic religion-illustrate and support one another. It is sold at two carlini. Amongst the cheapest of the Neapolitan publications is 'Il Lucifero,' which has been in existence seven years, and sells for four grani, or twopence. Its contents appear to be not very dissimilar to those of our own journal, but on a far more limited scale. There is one, however, cheaper even than 'Il Lucifero,' called the 'Galleria Letteraria, in which 110 pages are given for two carlini, or one shilling and ninepence. It is written partly in French and partly in Italian, and contains some tolerable lithographed views. In commencing a new volume for this year, an intention is announced of reproducing works of established reputation, In this manner,' says the whatever be their length. editor, we shall give to the public many works of value published in Italy, but out of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, as well as the works of distinguished writers of any nation.' Besides such reprints, it gives a great variety, as well as quantity of matter, as may be inferred from the size of the work. This Literary Gallery' has been in existence three years. These are samples of the twentyeight periodicals published at Naples. Their existence admits of the gratifying inference, that education and knowledge are spreading amongst those who have perhaps more need of them than any other people in Europe. As recently as 1840, it was ascertained that in some of the Neapolitan provinces scarcely one in every hundred and fifty persons was able to read. Complete sets of the Journal, First Scries, in twelve volumes, and also odd numbers to complete sets, may be had from the publishers or their agents. A Stamped Edition issued for transmission, post free, price Two. pence halfpenny. Printed by William Bradbury, of No. 6, York Place, and Frederick Mullett grass, of No. 7, Church Row, both of Stoke Newington, in the county of Middlesex, printers, at their office, Lombard Street, in the precinct of Whitefriars, and city of London'; and Published (with permission of the Proprietors, W. and R. CHAMBERS.) by WILLIAM SOMERVILLE ORR. Publisher, of 3. Amen Corner, at Na 2, AMEN CORNER both in the parish of Christchurch, and in the city of London-Saturday, September 28, 1844 EDINBURGH JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. No. 40. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1844. THE CIRCUMSTANTIAL. Ir psychologists were to erect the results of their inquiries into a science, and classify mankind according to their mental, as naturalists have arranged them under their organic peculiarities, circumstantial people would be placed under the genus 'bore.' They are greater consumers of time and patience than any of the species into which that very extensive genus may be divided. I am at this moment slowly recovering from the effects of a visit of one of these narrators of very minute and unnecessary particulars. He came to tell me that his eldest daughter had unexpectedly departed for Paris; a piece of information which, in the first place, it was not highly essential for me to know, and which, in the second, might have been communicated in six or eight words. But so prompt a mode of compromising the information with me was by no means to his taste. He entered my study with an air that seemed Big with the fate of armies and of kings.' He had evidently been walking very fast-like a man to whom it was of great consequence to get an important piece of information off his mind as soon as possible. His first words were, 'My dear P what do you think?' 'I could not say.' 'Well, then, I'll tell you. Yesterday morning, my wife and I were seated at breakfast alone (for Maria had not come down, having been up late at Mrs Farmer's ball the night before); I was just breaking the shell of my second egg, while Mrs Fraser was remarking, that if Maria did not make haste, her tea would get cold-when there came a double knock at the door, and in bounced Hopperton. "Who would have thought of seeing you at this time of the morning?" said I. "Who, indeed?" he replied, laughing; "but I did not come to see you, Fraser. Oh no, I came to see your wife!" And as he gave Mrs Fraser one of his funny winks, we both laughed. Well, I looked at Mrs Fraser, and Mrs Fraser looked at me, as much as to say, "I wonder what Hopperton wants?" He did not keep us long in suspense; for after my wife had asked him if he had taken breakfast, and he had replied, "Oh yes, hours ago!" (you know he is a very early riser), he unfolded the object of his visit. "The fact is," he began, " my wife and daughter are off to Paris." "To Paris?" exclaimed both myself and my wife at the same instant. "Yes," repeated Hopperton, "to Paris; and my Mary Anne swears-at least not exactly that" -(you know what a funny fellow he is)-" but she declares that she will not go, unless your Maria can accompany them. Now, the question is, Mrs Fraser, can you spare her?" You'll hardly believe me, Peppercorn, when I tell you that my wife was so much astonished at the proposition, that, having the cream-jug in her hand at the time, she let it fall, and spilt the contents PRICE 1d. over the hearth-rug-a new one-only sent home from the Pantechnicon three days before. It might have been worse though, for, odd enough, the jug-a glass one-never broke.' 'But about your daughter?' I said, to bring him back to the subject. 'Well, when Mrs Fraser had recovered her fright, and rung for the maid to wipe up the mess on the hearth-rug, she said it was so very startling a proposition, that really she did not know what to say, and for her part she would leave it to me to decide.' 'And,' I interposed, hoping to cut my tormentor short, you consented?' 'Wait, and you shall hear. My wife gave me a look, which, I knew perfectly well, meant, "I should like the girl to go." But Hopperton thought she was in doubt, and determined to persuade us. "You see," said he, "such another opportunity may not occur, and it will quite put the finish to your daughter's education; for no girl is thought much of now-a-days who has not been to Paris. Then she will have the opportunity of learning the Polka with my Mary Anne, who is to take lessons from a Bohemian nobleman-the only person, I am told, that teaches the properly authenticated steps and figures." This seemed to strike my wife with great force, and while she was debating the matter with me, down came Maria herself!' 'And the end of it was, I suppose, that Hopperton's arguments prevailed?' I said, touching up the capital D of a Dear Sir with which I had begun a letter, hoping, by this little indication, to show that I was in a hurry to finish the epistle. I might, however, have just as well endeavoured to stop a steam-engine with a hair. 'Wait, wait,' he went on; 'the best of it is to come. Maria blushed, stammered, and looked imploringly at us. Mrs Fraser could not resist. Hopperton told me the whole thing would not cost us above twenty pounds (by the by, I shall not be surprised if I have not five, or perhaps ten more to pay), and, after a little more persuasion, we consented. Poor Maria! she did not eat a bit of breakfast, and as they would have to start at five o'clock this morning (quick work, you see), she went off to begin packing.' This, I fondly hoped, would end the tale; but not so. Fraser insisted on describing every preparation that was made for the journey, even to the articles of dress Miss Fraser had purchased, and the prices paid for them-the exact hour at which the family was called up on the eventful morning, what they had for breakfast, and how long they took to eat it-how much the hackney coachman who conveyed the young lady and her trunks to the steam wharf endeavoured to overcharge-what Mrs and Miss Hopperton said when they met on the deck of the vesselhow much the two younger ladies cried, on parting with their respective papas-and every occurrence down to events of his long existence were minuted with such the starting of the boat. When, to my great relief, fidelity, that although he could give very little informaFraser went away, I found, on consulting my watch, tion about the battle of Trafalgar, the Restoration of that he had despoiled me of the best two hours of my the Bourbons-about Napoleon, Nelson, or Wellington day. Some time after, on comparing notes with one-yet he could tell you with perfect exactitude how or two mutual acquaintances, I discovered that they many times he had been troubled with the toothache were losers by Fraser of the same quantity of valuable in a half a century, when guineas were worth twentytime on the same day by his tedious minuteness in tell- seven shillings a-piece, and when the first omnibus was ing the same story. started from Peckham to the Bank, with the price of the fares, and the name of the driver. His mind was as full of those minutiæ as his voluminous diaries, of which his conversation was but a tedious repetition. Though an excellent and worthy old gentleman in other respects, his circumstantial garrulity was far from amusing. Fraser is only one of a species divided into many varieties, all of whom are so peculiarly obnoxious to my own habits, feelings, and (I am tempted to add) to my temper, that though I avoid them, when I can, with uncommon promptitude, yet I have many opportunities of studying their peculiarities. A few of these it may be amusing, perhaps useful, to point out. There is one rule to which I invariably adhere in reference to circumstantial people, which is never to contradict a circumstantial person, or question by the least hint the truth of his manifold statements; for that is sure to bring down a torrent of trifles in supposed corroboration of what he has been saying. If, for instance, you doubt the correctness of one of this class when he says he did something not very credible -such as having walked five or six miles in an hour -he will try to convince you by declaring upon his honour it is true, for he met his friend Robson before he started, who remarked that he was sure it would rain, and advised me, as I was going so far, to take an umbrella. Why, I overtook the Rumble coach, and my brother's wife's cousin was on the outside, and even he called out, What was my hurry? Besides, when I got to my destination, the people I went to see had but just dined, and remarked how warm I looked, insisting upon my taking a glass of soda-water, with a dash of pale sherry in it, just to take away the chill. Nay, upon my word I have not exaggerated-I did the whole distance within the hour-not a minute over.' Whereupon you are expected to have been convinced, although all these corroborations' have as much to do with the matter as the man in the moon. It must not, however, be inferred that the circumstantial are at all addicted to untruth; on the contrary, it is their rigid adherence to the whole truth' which crowding their statements with masses of petty occurrences, and consequently rendering them too confused to be clearly comprehended-causes their narratives to appear to be far from nothing but the truth.' By expending their breath in running after unimportant facts, they lose their grasp of the main ones. Their extreme scrupulousness in this respect often keeps their auditor a long while on the threshold of a story before they enter upon it in earnest. This generally arises on a point of time; thus- Last Thursday-but, let me remember, wasn't it Wednesday? No, it could not have been Wednesday, for I went out of town that day. It must have been Friday; and yet I don't know either: on Friday I had my hair cut, and it was not then, I am certain. No, it was Thursday.' Then, in all probability, the story begins; but when it is to end, is another question, for a narrative commenced after this fashion is certain to be an unusually long one. Another instance of this passion for scriptural circumstantiality occurs in our own family. My late worthy Aunt Bridget journalised with so much copiousness, that I really believe more than half her time was employed in chronicling the events of the other half. Indeed, unless she had hit upon a plan of shortening her memoranda, I am confident that so great a proportion of her days would have been swallowed up by her commonplace-book, that she would have had no time left to act-to make, in other words, materials for her entries. This plan consisted in writing the initial letter only of the principal words-a system of short-hand which had a very curious effect on some of her closely-filled pages. I once happened to take a peep into this bulky manuscript, and found the following startling memorandum:-Pipe burst, and W flowed all over the H, putting out the K fire, at which D's and P's were being cooked. This put us all out sadly, for P was coming at 5 to D(ine). However, although this caused our D to be half an hour after the T, yet we got over it very well.' I remember that day perfectly. I have good reason; for during the whole of my stay I was entertained with an account of this disaster; the quantity of water (estimated in pailfuls) which overflowed the house; the name of the poulterer who sold the ducks, and of the green-grocer from whom my aunt bought the peas; the exact time at which the pipe burst, with the precise minute when the smoke-jack stopped, and the kitchen fire went out: not one circumstance which did, might, could, should, or ought to have happened, was abated; and although I dined that day with my Aunt Bridget to transact some important family business, yet I was obliged to leave it undone. She could do nothing but talk of her domestic flood. Peace be with her! Let me chronicle the last event of her life, which was the making of her will-next to her diaries, her greatest literary undertaking. It occupied her a month's incessant dictation to a very expert clerk of mine, and filled two quires of foolscap. She left me about three hundred pounds, the bulk of which was in small bank notes, their numbers and dates carefully noted in her will. The rest was in guineas, each of which was described by the date of its coinage. To some of her legatees, the cost of copies of probate was greater than the value of her bequests; so infinitesimal was her method of describing them. Speaking of the law naturally reminds one of the extreme circumstantiality of that profession. The wordiness of the most trifling transaction when recorded at law,' is perfectly wearying to the intellect, though perhaps necessary to insure correctness. Should, for example, Mr Jones quarrel with Mr Smith, and inflict summary punishment by the slightest tap with a stick, and the case be brought into court, the aggressor is accused in the indictment something_after the following fashion:- That he, the said John Jones, did, on the twenty-ninth day of February last past (to wit, the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and Very circumstantial persons keep journals, in which they note down with scrupulous fidelity the daily occurrences of the most monotonous and uneventful lives. I knew an old gentleman who had been engaged from his youth in the Bank of England, where he made his appearance every morning exactly at ten o'clock for fifty years. During that period he lived at Peckham, in the suburbs of London. Yet he journalised with as much industry as if his life had been as eventful as that of Julius Cæsar, or as full of hair-breadth 'scapes as Baron Munchausen's. For lack, however, of great things, he chronicled small. That old gentleman boast-forty-four), in a public thoroughfare, to wit, the Strand, ed that he could tell-by a minute's reference to his long set of diaries-where he had dined, and what he had had for dinner, on any one day during the last half century! His circumstantiality concerning the petty in the city of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, wilfully, knowingly, with evil intent, and malice aforethought, beat, strike, assault, and otherwise maltreat the aforesaid Thomas Smith with a certain blunt weapon, stick, rattan, or switch, to wit, a sugar-cane three feet one inch in length, and one quarter of an inch in diameter of thickness, for the purpose, intent, and determination of inflicting on the aforesaid Thomas Smith some grievous bodily harm, and disturbing the peace of her majesty's realm, contrary to the statute in that case made and provided.' began in the infancy of mankind, and was very inadequately effected by the alphabets which they invented. The forms of the letters of these alphabets were determined by chance and caprice, and were far from being so simple as they might have been. The consequences are, that the words of all written languages are set down or spelt in an arbitrary manner, and that the writing Neither is circumstantiality confined to the law. We of these languages is invariably a tedious process. There sometimes find the professors of medicine indulging in is confessedly no principle in the spelling of English it to a very trying extent, in order, one is occasionally led | words. The letter a, for instance, has four sounds, as to suspect, to make the most of their technical knowledge. in psalm, mat, mate, fall. The other vowels have This is very often the case when such evidence of their several sounds each; and several combinations of letters, acquirements is likely to be made public-as when a sur- of frequent use, have different sounds in different words; geon is called upon to give his testimony at an English thus, ough has the various pronunciations expressed in Coroner's inquest or in a court of law. On one occasion, thought, though, through, plough, cough, rough, hough, when a friend had, by falling, made a rather deep cut hiccough. By way of an illustration of the uncertainty under his knee, the country practitioner who attended of the sounds of words in the English language, we may him described the accident to me in-as near as I can re- borrow, from a late privately printed pamphlet, a line collect-the following words. The case is this, sira forming a gentleman's name, which may well defy corsevere contusion and puncture has been made at the top rect pronunciation in all but those who have heard it of the tibia by some hard and blunt substance-probably soundeda flint stone-the consequence of which is, a wound about an inch long, and (say) a quarter of an inch broad, and of a depth sufficient not only to lay open the cuticle and epidermis, but to sever a portion of the tendon-patella, remove a small section of the periosteum, and contuse the bone. Inflammation has super vened, in consequence of the entrance into the cavity of certain minute particles (probably gravel); which, keeping up a constant and active irritation, are calculated to retard recovery, till removed by means of poultices.' Here I desired my verbose informant to stop, my time not permitting me to listen to the rest of the diagnosis. From the specimens of circumstantiality which I have produced, it will be found a most time-wasting fault, and one consequently to be avoided. The great art in making statements regarding facts is to seize their main features, without detailing the petty events branching from or clinging to them, as have nothing to do with the circumstance-in-chief which the narrator is anxious to detail. PHONOGRAPHY. SIR GEART PRIESE GROUGH, BARONET, OF THOVE. Ea in Geart may be pronounced four ways, as in Great, Heat, Heart, Earth, and the G either as in get or gem. Therefore the Christian name Geart may be any one of the eight words, Gart, Gyrt, Gart, Gert, Djart, Djyrt, Djart, Djert. Ie in Priese may be pronounced four ways, as in the words Friend, Grieve, Sieve, Cries; and the se may sound sharp, as in Geese, or flat, as in Cheese. Priese may therefore be one of the eight words Pres, Preece, Priss, Prys, Prez, Preeze, Priz, Prize. Ough in Grough may be pronounced in any one of the eight ways above enumerated; so our baronet's patronymic may be Grau, Gro, Groo, or Grou-Grof, Gruf, Groh, or Grup. Ove in Thove may be pronounced three ways, as in rove, prove, and love; and Th may be either hard, as in Thorpe, or soft, as in Thee, or as T, as in Thomas. Therefore, Thove is susceptible of nine interpretations of sound. The sum is this, the name of the baronet may be SIR GERT (or Gyrt, Gart, Gert, Djært, Djyrt, Djart, or Djert) PRES (or Preece, Priss, Prys, Prez, Preeze, Priz, or Prize), GRAU (or Gro, Groo, Grou, Grof, Gruf, Groh, or Grup), of WE have always been inclined to regard attempts to Thove, Thoove, or Thuv. Suppose each of the varieties improve the spelling and sign-representation of the of Grough is liable to have any one of the varieties of English language as visionary, partly because so many varieties of pronunciation for Priese Grough, two sylPriese to precede it, there will be sixty-four possible very miserable failures have been made in this line, and lables of the name. Each of these varieties may be partly because there appeared so little reason to ex-preceded by any one of the eight possible varieties of pect that any improved system would ever be so gene- | pronunciation for the name Geart, making 512 varieties rally adopted as to become of practical utility. Our views, we candidly confess, have been much changed since we lately became acquainted with the system of phonography invented by Mr Pitman of Bath. This system is now in the course of being explained to popular audiences throughout the country by lecturers commissioned by the inventor, and, having had our attention attracted to it, by the visit of Messrs Woodward and Walker to Edinburgh, we have enabled ourselves to speak with a little confidence of its merits, by going through a course of lessons, in which we have mastered its principal features. We shall endeavour to give our readers some general knowledge of it, certain that, if we fail in making the subject interesting, it must be our own blame, as the lectures of our preceptor in the art were universally felt to be that and something more, namely, entertaining. The evil which phonography primarily proposes to reform, is the imperfection of our alphabet as a means of representing the sounds of our language. There are about thirty-eight sounds in the English tongue, and only twenty-six letters with which to express them, two of these (c g) having two different sounds to represent, while q represents a sound which can also be represented by k. The representation of sounds by signs for Geart Priese Grough. Taking Thove at nine varieties, though it seems to have more, and considering that each of the preceding variations of the name may be followed by one of these peculiar ways of pronouncing designation of this English gentleman (a real person, we the appellative of the estate, we shall see that the full believe) may be pronounced no less than 4608 different ways. Moreover, it so happens that the people of Sir Geart's neighbourhood pronounce the vowels in Grough as in the word cow, so that, after all, not one of these 4608 pronunciations is the right one ! This, it may be said, is an extreme case; and certainly lies of the same kind, insomuch that, on a careful invesit is so; but the language is nevertheless full of anomatigation of 50,000 words, it is ascertained that only about fifty, or one in a thousand, are pronounced as might be expected from the spelling. The following illustration is a less striking one than the above, yet sufficient to show how far our orthography is from being a guide to pronunciation. To show the incongruities, each rhyming word in the second line is spelt in the same way as the first. 'Twas a fine winter's day, their breakfast was done, 212 I'm stag! With his hand in his waistcoat he's off; It was not very soon that e'en one he could tuch. Reinforcements arrive from the shed and shed cort. To break it some push with both shoulder and thigh, But so firm is the hold that vainly they trigh. Oh, 'tis broken at last! now scamper the whole, To escape their pursuers, and get to the gole. But, hark! the clock strikes, and then, by the rules, ;n is; and ng is ; namely, the n character marked heavily. These are the whole of the substantial sounds or consonants of the language. ner. 111 The vowels are produced in an equally simple manWhat may be called the fundamental vowels of the human speech, are those in the following wordsreed, mate, psalm, caught, pope, room; namely, e, ai, ah, au, oe, o0. And these Mr Pitman expresses by heavy dots and short strokes placed at various points along the body of the consonants. Thus, taking the consonant t, we have the vowels formed as followsThe first of these associations It need scarcely be remarked what a difficulty our imperfect representation of sounds introduces into the study is the word eat, the second ate, the fourth aught, and of our language, both for children and strangers. A the fifth oat. So, likewise, transposing the arrangement, child, who is told that love is luv, necessarily of course key, kay; and so forth, the vowel presumes that o has the power of the vowel sound in luv, being here sequential to the stroke. The other vowels himself and, on coming to pronounce prove, supposes are those expressed in the following words-sit, set, right when he says pruv; whereas it is proove. And so on with all the other 49,950 misrepresented words of sat, sot, rut, look, and these are only the others shortThere are also compound the language, each of which requires a special effort of ened; they are marked by merely a light instead of a heavy dot or hyphen. memory regarding itself, before the student can be con- vowels-ye, ya, yah, yau, yo, yoo; we, wa, wah, wau, sidered as perfect in orthoepy; the acquisition of ortho-wo, woo; i, oi, ou; wi, wou; and these are expressed graphy, or correct spelling, being a converse difficulty by little cusps and arrow-heads, arranged in similar of not less magnitude. How much of the time, labour, relations to the consonants. It is needless here to give and mental energy of an infant is thus absorbed merely examples. in getting over the difficulties imposed by a bad system handed down from antiquity! we have The whole of the mutes and some of the semivocals are liable in our language to be often associated with 1 It is obvious that, by having a sign for each of the and r, as in the words, please, praise, little, tract; and so thirty-eight radical sounds, and spelling the words with forth. This combination is stenographically expressed these in all instances according to the sound, the litera- by merely a hook at the beginning of the fundamental ture of our speech would be of infinitely easier acquisi- consonant, turned to the right for I, and to the left for r. tion, because we should then be guided by a few simple A hook made in like manner at the ends of the letters, and invariable principles, instead of being required to adds other sounds; in the straight-line letters, at the fix thousands of eccentricities in our memory. To fur-left, it indicates n, at the right, tion; towards the inside nish such an extended alphabet, has been often attempted, of the bend in the curved letters, n. There is also but never successfully, in our opinion, until now, when readier mode of the letter s by a loop at the beginning the task has been undertaken by a man apparently of or end of the adjoining consonants; and the ed of the much ingenuity, guided by an enlightened view of natural principles. Mr Pitman's system has also the advan- preterite tense is denoted by giving the preceding contage of furnishing a short-hand of an unusually easy sonant of half the usual size; thus, dip, when written kind. In pursuit of simplification, this gentleman classes the mute and semivocal consonants in couples, which are merely lighter or graver variations of one sound—p, b; t, d; ch, j; k, g; f, v; th as in think; and th as in them; s, z; sh, zh; and he thus obtains the advantage of expressing these respectively by lighter and heavier strokes, conformably to the nature of their sound. The signs adopted for the mutes are geometric forms of the simplest kind, and determined by an analogy to the modes of their pronunciation. The figure becomes fabled; and so on. The abbreviative power of the system is strongly marked in some instances. For example, two strokes or moves of the hand would express the word cautioned, which requires twentyeight to execute in the ordinary hand. Such are the main features of Mr Pitman's phonoexpresses them graphy; a few less important particulars are overlooked, for the sake of simplicity. It appears that the system, in union, being all the available radii of the upper half of wherever it is explained, meets a warm reception from a circle. The stroke or radius to the right is adopted to many persons. It impresses all with an admiration of its represent p (in its lighter form) and b (in its heavier simplicity and truthfulness, the result of the relation form), because the pronunciation of these takes place which it bears to natural principles; and hundreds and nearest to the front of the vocal organs. The upright thousands have studied it so far as to be able to correstroke represents t and d, because these are sounded spond in it. We find that four lessons have enabled us from a point next farther back in the mouth. The to convey the system into our mind, and that only stroke leaning to the right represents ch and j, and the practice could further be necessary to enable us to norizontal stroke k and g, for similar reasons. The write it with ease and speed. The great question will simplicity of these characters, as distinguished from be, of course, to what good? We wish to give a candid those which we derive from ancient hieroglyphics, de- answer, when we say that a large and wide-spread rived in their turn from pictures of objects, must be adoption of the system does not seem to us as altostriking to all; and yet, it will be observed, they are gether to be despaired of. It is very clear that, when entirely distinct from each other, and therefore not to the present acknowledgedly bad system is once, with be mistaken in any possible case. The semivocals are whatever difficulty, acquired, there is a great indisposition to take the trouble of mastering a new one, partly marked on the same principle; thus, however simple. Familiarised with literature in its for a stroke in the same direction, represents f and v, present appearance, every new mode of expressing it a curve |